The returning officer for the by-elections of National Assembly constituency NA-108 has completed the distribution of election material among the presiding officers.
A tough competition is expected between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and PDM’s joint candidate Abid Sher Ali for the by-elections. A flag march was conducted in the constituency by the district police on Saturday while the election control room has been declared by the district administration. The returning officer and police officials visited the election control room and described the arrangements as satisfactory.
In this regard, Returning Officer Mian Muhammad Shahid visited the election cell established in connection with the by-elections today. District administration and police officials were also present on this occasion. Talking to the media after inspecting the election cell, the Returning Officer said that the delivery of election martial for the by-elections has been completed, while the code of conduct has been issued for all the candidates on the polling day and instructions have been given to implement it. He further said that no candidate or their supporters will be allowed to violate the code of conduct and it is expected that tomorrow’s by-elections will be held peacefully. The returning officer has also described the arrangements of the district and police authorities as satisfactory
According to the instructions issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan, polling will be held on October 16 for the by-elections in Constituency NA-108. For which a total of 354 polling stations were established in the constituency while the number of polling booths to be established at these polling stations is 1,084. Out of which 558 polling booths have been allocated for male voters and 526 for female voters.
A flag march was conducted by District Police Faisalabad to maintain law and order situation in the by-elections, which was led by City Police Officer Umar Saeed Malik, while in the flag march SP Iqbal Division Hafiz Kamran Asghar, SP Jaranwala Division Artza Kamil, SP Sadr Division Shamsul Haq, Rangers troops. And the concerned DSPs, SHO, Dolphin Squad, Elite Force, Traffic Police participated. The flag march started from Government Post Graduate College, Samanabad, passed through various main roads and intersections and ended at the police line. On this occasion, the CPO clarified that the purpose of the flag march is to keep a close watch on the miscreants while maintaining the atmosphere of peace and harmony in the city. The police are always ready to protect the life and property of the people, the police are playing its effective role in making Faisalabad crime free.
Faisalabad district police also issued a security plan for the by-elections, under which a total of 354 polling stations have been constructed across the district, of which 281 are in A category. 41 have been included in B category while 32 have been included in C category polling stations where additional police personnel will be deployed. Similarly, more than 6000 police officers and personnel have been assigned duties on the day of by-elections Among them are 04 SPs, 13 DSPs, 17 inspectors, 384 sub-inspectors, 436 assistant sub-inspectors and more than 5342 officials. Along with this, teams of Dolphin Force, 34 teams of Elite Force, patrolling police will be on patrol to deal with any emergency situation. Along with this, more than 920 officers and personnel will be standing by the police station and police line, apart from this, the mobile phones of the police station will continue patrolling there in their respective areas.
An Election Cell has been set up in District Emergency Operations Center DC Office to exchange any kind of information and deal with possible emergencies in connection with the by-elections to be held today on October 16 in constituency NA-108, which will be functional on October 16 from 8am to October 17 at 8am. Additional Deputy Commissioner Headquarters Kashif Raza Awan will be the focal person of the Election Cell while Muhammad Sadiq will be in charge. Duties have also been assigned to the staff of all the concerned departments in the election cell in three shifts.
More than 20 rescue posts have been set up to deal with any emergency situation during the by-election under the direction of District Emergency Officer Engineer Ehtisham Wahla. Emergency vehicles and rescue personnel including ambulances, fire vehicles and motorbike ambulances will be deployed at all these rescue posts. Emergency Officer Operations Ghulam Shabbir will oversee all arrangements and rescue posts.
Farrukh Habib of PTI was elected MNA from NA 108 in 2018 general elections by getting 112,740 votes, whereas the candidate of Muslim League-N, Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali, was in second place by getting 111,529 votes. In the by-elections to be held on October 16, 2022, PTI Chairman Imran Khan will be the candidate in the place of Farrukh Habib and PDM’s joint candidate Abid Sher Ali will be the opponent,
NA 108 is a constituency of Faisalabad city which consists of 44 union councils starting from the central area of Chowk Ghanta Ghar. The population of the constituency is more than 900,000 while in the by-elections 505,186 voters will be eligible to exercise their right to vote. Out of which 27,139 voters are male while 234,147 voters are female. There are large groups of different communities in the constituency including Arain, Jutt, Rajput, Malik and Gujjar and elections are rigged on the basis of these community groups.
